Has anyone tested out SitePal?

The company I work for had tested it before and it failed - but with the newest page design using the SAME character and script, the page is converting rather well...I know Flash = Bad but we moved the "talking head" to the order page as opposed to the sales page and redesigned the whole site. Alas, success!

Anyone else ever try this service out? What were your results?

Don't know about anyone else, but I can't stand that SitePal and as soon as I see it come up, I leave the site immediately, not caring WHAT they have to offer ... you'd be surprised how many more 1,000's of web surfers feel the same way about it.

That was my inital thought...its just that now that the page is converting well, it is contradictory to that thought....I was just curious...

I feel the same way as travelagent

I won't look at a site for more than a second if it has that talking site pal on it

i'm going to amsterdam tomorrow (whoooooowhooo) and the site i got our appartment from used sitepal. i normally don't like it but it didn't put me off, especially when it told me there was a minibar stacked with complimentary beers!

I hate not being in control of my computer, and especially the webpages I visit

I use my computer a lot and am constantly listening to music, podcasts or reports through it while I work

The most annoying thing in the world for me is opening up a site and finding that it is playing crap music, talking to me or even worse - giving me a sales pitch.

I think site pal is a  gimmick. I hate finding it on other websites, most of the time it's just advertising its self.

If it does lead to an increase in sales I can only just begin to imagines the amount of work that went in to getting it right - or maybe they were lucky and managed to it 'just right', or maybe their niche market likes that sort of thing.

On a site that targets many demographics I would avoid putting anything on it that can upset or turn away visitors. We'll never please everyone, but we're trying. At the moment, 'most' is best and 'most' get put off by gimmicks like sitepal - especially if they are required to update flash or whatever it uses!

All IMHO of course!

If you find site pal annoying, try this:

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/433/

Assuming that you're using firefox, this extension will stop the site pal in its tracks

Well all I have to put in my code is a little bit of Javascript, so its not a big thing. Other than that, the amount of work involved was pretty minimal - write the script, record the audio, shorten the audio, and create the character. I have it so it sets a cookie and only plays 1 time a day, and you are able to mute and/or pause the character. You dont see it until you are ready to order, so its not like as soon as you reach the site you see it.

I think the important thing here is the PLACEMENT - Mark, you say it is on the order page - which could be a good thing for those who require more assistance.

Early pages I agree with everyone else.

SitPal should have some stats on placement and should have doene research on this as well, rather than just selling what is widely regarded as a gimmick

I got an email about this site many, many months ago and was wondering about it.  Then I never saw anything about it again - or didn't notice.  I did go check it out, but the monthly fee put me off of any further investigation.  In the end, I came to the same conclusion as the rest of you...too gimmicky.

I like your idea of the order page Mark.  I was thinking of a FAQs page initially.